


The End

by CrashDevil (cjdevlin19)



Series: Best Laid Plans Series [22]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha!Dean, Alpha!Sam, Endverse, F/M, Mentions of Dubcon, Reader-Insert, a/b/o dynamics, mentions of forced marking, mentions of torture, omega!reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:08:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28544571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cjdevlin19/pseuds/CrashDevil
Summary: Dean gets taken to 2014 by Zachariah.~~~~~~~~~~~~~“Who did this to you? Is it Zachariah?”“Yes.”“Interesting.”“Oh, yeah, it’s fuckin’ fascinating. Now. Why don’t you strap on your angel wings and fly me back to my page on the calendar?” Dean demanded.Castiel started chuckling and turned away. “I wish I could just, uh, strap on my wings, but I’m sorry...no dice.”Dean appraised him a bit more carefully and shook his head. “What, are you stoned?”“Uh, generally, yeah,” Cas responded, sobering a bit.“What happened to you?”“Life,” Castiel responded.Dean swallowed thickly and looked around. “And what happened to Y/n? Where is she?”Castiel looked away again. “When your father died, she didn’t have a chance.”“Why wasn’t she here? Why was she with-”“Two marks, Dean,” Cas pressed. “She only ever got two marks.”Dean shook his head. He knew he was apprehensive about tethering Y/n to him for the rest of his life. He knew he was scared that he’d just end up being a third disappointing alpha for her. But he didn’t think he’d keep from marking her for so long. He always assumed he’d do it...later.
Relationships: Dean Winchester/You, Lucifer!Sam/You
Series: Best Laid Plans Series [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1526507
Kudos: 38





	The End

**Story Warnings** : angst...A/B/O dynamics, canon divergence, mentions of physical violence against the reader, everyone feeling bad about how they've treated Y/n, mentions of angel mindfuckery, did I mention angst?, Lucifer being Lucifer

~~~~~~~

_Dean looked over at Sam and then looked to the back seat where his father sat. Every time he saw his father, Dean’s brain flashed to the bruise around Y/n’s eye. The fact that John hit her. He hit her and that was almost the worst thing he could have done._

_“She told me what you did, ya know,” he bit out. “Y/n told me what you did.”_

_Sam looked over, expecting that he was talking to him again, but John looked down in shame. “Dean, I-”_

_“Don’t even start. Don’t start trying to explain away what you did, Dad. No one wants to hear your excuses.” Sam turned his confused look on John. “You know, when you pulled that shit on me and Sam, I always made excuses_ **_for_ ** _you. When you hit me...when you grabbed Sam and shook him like a rag doll, it was because you were drunk. When you took your belt to me, it was because you were stressed or depressed or--or it was my fault because I let Sammy run away. It was my fault because_ **_I_ ** _didn’t follow orders.” Dean glared at John in the rearview and adjusted his hands on the wheel. “I thought you were better. I thought you’d stopped being so goddamn abusive, but you were just waiting to have another person completely dependent on you for you to slap around.”_

_Sam’s eyes went wide at the thought that John had hit Y/n. “He didn’t-”_

_“Yeah, he did. You didn’t notice her fucking glasses? He backhanded her because she had the nerve to open her mouth to him about the hopeless situation we’re in. Because that’s all it takes to set him off, a bit of attitude from his omega in a stressful situation.”_

_“It wasn’t that simple, Dean,” John defended._

_“Are you_ **_really_ ** _gonna try to rationalize this? You fucking hit her! There’s absolutely nothing you can say to make that okay!”_

_“I’m not trying to make it okay. I’m just saying that it wasn’t...there was a lot going on. Sammy was addicted to demon blood, he’d beat Bobby’s face in with a shotgun, put you down in that hotel room in Cold Spring, and then you just disappeared. The world is ending. I was stressed and she didn’t-”_

_“That doesn’t fucking_ **_matter_ ** _! You’re supposed to be her support, her alpha, the safe space she has to deal with Sam’s bullshit, but you fucking hit her. You hit her and that’s never gonna be okay!”_

_"I know that!”_

_“Then why’d you do it?! Knowing that it would put you in the exact same spot as Sam, knowing she wouldn’t be able to be your omega anymore once you hit her, why couldn’t you just stop yourself? Control yourself!” Dean shouted._

_“She’s still his omega, Dean, just like she’s still mine. She’s marked,” Sam argued quietly._

_“For two ruts each and three heats a year, she’s your omega. For every other day, she’s not.” Dean scoffed loudly. “You think she’s really gonna be runnin’ off with Dad to vacation cabins in Montana now? You think she’s gonna be ridin’ in his truck and cuddling up to him? Of course not! She’s gonna avoid him as much as she’s been avoiding you, which I mean, I can’t even really be mad about that because I couldn’t stand seeing her with Dad anyway. But now she’s got_ **_two_ ** _marks on her neck and she’s bound to_ **_two_ ** _alphas that couldn’t manage to treat her like a human being! What the fuck’s wrong with you two? Y/n deserves the world and you couldn’t even give her-”_

_“You’ve been horrible to her for_ **_years_ ** _, Dean!” Sam exclaimed. Dean sneered as he looked over at his little brother. “You pushed her off on me. You were a dick when she came back from the dead. Even after she sacrificed herself for you, you wouldn’t even give her a chance! You were cold and distant until you got dragged to Hell!”_

_Dean’s jaw clenched as he looked away back to the road. Sam kept talking. “And when you got back, you assumed the worst of her because of the marks on her neck and you never apologized for how you treated her over it! Even_ **_she_ ** _said so! You made her out to be some kinda whore for being with Dad and you never said ‘sorry’ so you’ve messed up here, too, Dean! So don’t act like you’re so much better than we are when-”_

_“You ever apologize for what-”_

_“All the time!” Sam shouted. “I apologize all the time! Because it needs to be said over and over how sorry I am that I got high and let my alpha side ruin her life, but you refuse to say sorry and that means that you aren’t better than us. So, stop attacking him.”_

_Dean shook his head and focused on the road. There’d be time to fight more later. He had to focus on the Michael Sword._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You took a deep breath as you woke from your dream. You rolled your head to stretch your neck as you sat up straight. Dean was passed out in the driver’s seat, head against the window and drool on his chin. You smiled as you looked at him. You loved him. He wouldn’t say it back, but you were sure he loved you too. Between Chuck’s books and the memories you kept dreaming of his, you knew he cared. Even if he never said it, you knew it.

“Dean, it’s time to get up,” you said, leaning over to run your hand across his chest.

He moaned and smacked his lips, covering your hand with his. “Five more minutes, ‘mega.”

You chuckled and shook your head. “Dean, baby, let’s get back on the road. This was just supposed to be a short nap, remember?”

His eyes fluttered as he woke. “But I’m comfy,” he argued, with a small smirk on his lips.

“We have a job in Kansas City. We gotta get going,” you tried.

“Nah.”

“Dean, I want to sleep in a bed. So let’s get to Missouri and get a motel room and get out of this damn car,” you growled.

“Hey. You love this car. Shut up,” he snapped, just an edge of offense to his words.

“I do love this car but I want out of it.”

He released your hand and sat up, sighing as he stretched as best he could. “Yeah, all right. A bed would be good. We’ve been sleeping in the car since-” He cut himself off and shook his head as he pulled the keys out of his pocket and put them in the ignition.

“Since Sam left. You can say it.”

“Yeah. Don’t wanna,” he said, turning the key to let the engine roar to life.

“You could have argued, Dean. You could have gotten him to stay.”

“We’re better off, Y/n. You know it as well as I do. We both spent too much focus on worrying about Sam when we should have been focusing on the job! We can’t afford to do that for the rest of our-”

“Do you really think it’s gonna take the rest of our lives to trust him again? He’s your brother.”

Dean fixed a glare on you that made your shoulders tense up. “This is the same man you said you’d feel relieved about his death, right?” he snapped. “I don’t know when or _if_ I’ll ever be able to trust him again, Y/n, but I know that I can’t trust him now. I know being around him is painful for me and you right now. So-”

“But being _away_ from him is also painful for you. Not to mention, I’m going to go into heat soon and we’re gonna need to find him...or we’re gonna need to find John.”

He growled and it sent fear coursing through you and into your scent. “We’ll deal with that _later_.”

“Dean, unless you want to mark me too, I’m going to need one of my alphas...or it’ll be a torturous three days,” you snapped. You hadn’t brought up Dean marking you. It seemed too soon after the initial “I love you” to bring it up.

But God, you wanted it. You wanted it so badly.

“We’ll fucking deal with it later.”

‘Later’. He’d decide whether to mark you or to call in his brother or father later.

“Yeah. Okay. Later,” you said, scooting away from him to lean against the passenger door.

“Why are you pouting?” he asked as he got back on the road.

“M’not pouting,” you responded.

“And now you’re lying,” he accused.

“Nope. Not pouting, not lying, just ready for a real bed and a breakfast burrito.”

Dean sighed and reached his arm out to wrap his hand around the back of your neck, sweeping his thumb along the bolt of your jaw. “It’s all gonna work out, ‘mega. Promise.”

You couldn’t help but let yourself relax.

“Just get us to a bed, Winchester.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, giving the back of your neck a squeeze before replacing his hand on the wheel.

When you got to the Century Hotel in Kansas City, you passed a man holding a handful of pamphlets about the Rapture. You rolled your eyes. He was too close to being right for your taste. You and Dean got a room with a full bed and you started getting yourself ready for bed as his phone went off and he answered it.

“Hey, Cas,” he answered. “Yeah, no, we’re...Wait, we’re talking about the Colt, right? I mean, as in _the_ Colt?” Your eyebrows went up and you turned to him as he shut the curtains and checked the room. “Well, that doesn’t make any sense. I mean, why would the demons keep a gun around that, uh, kills demons?” Dean chuckled as he checked the fridge. “You know, it’s kinda funny. Talking to a messenger of God on a cell phone. It’s, ya know, like watching a Hell’s Angel ride a moped.”

You walked out of the bathroom and set your duffel at the foot of the bed. “Okay, all right. I’m--I’m tellin’ you, Cas, the mooks have melted down the gun by now.” You nodded. That seemed to make the most sense. Dean moved to sit on the right side of the bed. “Okay. Where do we start?” There was a moment before, “Kansas City.” He leaned across the bed to look at the hotel key on your side of the bed. “Century Hotel, room 113.” Another moment. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, come on, man. We just drove like sixteen hours straight, okay? We’re human. And there’s stuff we gotta do.”

You shook your head at the Angel on the other side of the phone. “Eat, for example. In this case, sleep. I just need like four hours once in a while, okay? Okay, so, you can pop in tomorrow morning,” Dean said before ending the call. He looked over at you and shook his head. “He’s a weird dude, but eventually he’ll understand that people have people issues.”

“Let’s just get some sleep,” you said. “Been praying for a bed for days.”

“Sorry to keep you in the car for so long.”

You shrugged. “No big. Let’s just get some sleep now.” He gave you a tight smile before you both took your spots on the bed. You wanted to cuddle into him, but you turned on your side away from him so that you could be in your head by yourself.

You really thought you were making progress. You thought saying you loved him would change things, that he’d be more open, that he might love you back, but...no. He couldn’t be open. It was always going to be ‘later’, wasn’t it? You were never going to wear his mark, he was never going to say ‘I love you’, the rest of your life was going to be you being passed from his brother to his father for their ruts and your heats and that was going to be the end of it.

It was a sad prospect. One that kept you awake for hours, even after Dean’s breathing deepened to signify that he fell asleep. You were sure that you had just managed to fall asleep yourself when Dean’s cell phone buzzed on the table beside you and woke you both. You handed it over without a word or really without even looking at the phone.

He flipped it open and pressed it to his ear without even looking at it. “Damn it, Cas, I need to sleep!” His eyes popped open at the words. “Sam?” He looked past you to the clock on the table. “It’s quarter past four.”

You sat up and Dean put his phone on speaker so you could hear Sam’s explanation that Lucifer came to him and tried to convince him to say ‘yes’...because Sam was his vessel just like Dean was Michael’s. Dean walked over to the fridge to grab you and him both a beer.

“So you’re his vessel, huh? Lucifer’s wearing you to the prom?” Dean asked, loudly enough that the speaker could pick it up.

“That’s what he said,” Sam answered.

“Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in, huh, Sammy?” Dean said, going to look out the window.

“So, that’s it? That’s your response?”

“What are you lookin’ for?” Dean asked.

“I don’t know. A--a little panic, maybe?”

“I guess I’m a little numb to the earth-shattering revelations at this point,” Dean answered.

“What are we gonna do about it?” Sam asked.

“What do you _want_ to do about it?”

“I want back in, for starters.”

Dean rolled his eyes, but you just bit your bottom lip. “Sam-”

“I mean it. I am sick of being a puppet to these sons of bitches. I’m gonna hunt him down, Dean.”

“Oh, so we’re back to revenge then, are we? Yeah, ‘cause that worked out so well last time,” Dean bit out.

“Not revenge,” Sam argued. “Redemption.”

“So what, you’re just gonna walk back in and we’re gonna be the dynamic duo again?” Dean asked and you threw your hands up in a way that said ‘What about me?’. “And Batgirl,” he added.

“Look, Dean, I can do this. I _can_. I’m gonna prove it to you,” Sam insisted.

“Look, Sam,” Dean started, swiping the phone off of the bed and moving to sit in the leather chair in the corner. “It doesn’t matter. Whatever we do. I mean, it turns out that you and me, we’re the, uh, the fire and oil of the Armageddon. Ya know, on that basis alone, we should just pick a hemisphere. Stay away from each other for good.”

Your eyes went wide but he put a finger up and gave his head a single shake.

“Dean, it does not have to be like this. We can fight it,” Sam argued.

“Yeah, you’re right. We can. But not together. We’re not stronger when we’re together, Sam. I think we’re weaker. Because whatever we have between us...love, family, whatever it is...they are _always_ gonna use it against us. And you know that. Yeah, we’re better off apart. We got a better chance of dodging Lucifer and Michael and this whole damn thing, if we just go our own ways.”

“Dean, don’t do this,” Sam almost begged.

“Bye, Sam,” Dean said quietly, before flipping his phone closed and closing his eyes. “I don’t wanna hear it.”

“You don’t want to…” You licked your lips and nodded. “Fine.” You turned on your side again and took a deep breath. It was a big deal to stay away from Sam on purpose.

“You’re really not gonna drop your two cents?” Dean asked as he set the beer on the counter and the bed dipped behind you.

“No.”

“Good,” he spat, turning on his side away from you.

It didn’t take long for you to force yourself to fall asleep this time. You refused to open your eyes again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_As Castiel disappeared from the storage locker, leaving dead demons and Angels on the floor at the Winchesters’ feet, they all took a shaky breath. The rush of adrenaline from the pain of the Angels' measures against them and the rushing to cut off the demons before they could get to the storage unit was starting to crash and there was no forward momentum so Dean made his own. He turned to John and grabbed his jacket, pushing him into the closest shelf as hard as he could._

_"You never touch Y/n again, you get me? Right now, I don't give a fuck whose cycle is up, you don't touch her. You don't lay a finger on my omega, you understand?"_

_"You finally gonna mark her, then, son? Are you actually gonna make her yours or are you going to let her suffer when her heats hit, knowing that there's only two knots that'll satisfy her?"_

_"I'll do what I have to if I have to," Dean spat out._

_"What you have to. How could you not want to?" John asked, shaking his head. "How are you not desperate to get your teeth into her? I know Sam went about it wrong and I only got to do it to fix what he fucked, but I wanted her to wear my mark from the moment I scented her."_

_"You don't know what I’m thinking so shut up. Fact is, she's not your omega anymore and you can shut your face," Dean said, pressing John into the shelf a bit harder for good measure and then stomping out of the unit, heading for the Impala._

_He was suddenly driving another car. The Angel Zachariah appeared in the passenger seat with a newspaper spread across his lap. “‘Croatoan pandemic reaches Australia’,” he read out loud._

_“I thought I smelled your stink on this Back to the Future crap,” Dean snapped._

_“‘President Palin defends bombing of Houston.’ Certainly a buyer’s market in real estate. Let’s see what’s happening in sports. That’s right--no more sports. Congress revoked the right to group assembly. What’s_ **_left_ ** _of Congress, that is. Hardly a quorum, if you ask me.”_

_“How did you find me?” Dean demanded._

_“Afraid we had to tap some unorthodox resources of late--human informants. We’ve been making inspirational visits to the frontier Christian groups. They’ve been given your image, told to keep an eye out.”_

_“The Bible freak outside the motel. He, what, dropped a dime on me?”_

_“Onward, Christian soldiers.”_

_“Okay, well, good, great. You have had your jollies. Now send me_ **_back_ ** _, you son of a bitch.”_

_“Oh, you’ll get back. All in good time. We want you to marinate a bit.”_

_“Marinate?”_

_“Three days, Dean. Three days to see where this course of action takes you.”_

_“What’s that supposed to mean?”_

_“It means your choices have consequences,” Zachariah answered, showing Dean the front of the newspaper. “This is what happens to the world if you continue to say ‘no’ to Michael. Have a little look-see.” The Angel disappeared in a blink, leaving Dean alone._

_Things went fuzzy and Dean was passing a sign that said ‘Welcome to Camp Chitaqua’. Dean walked up to a fence with a sign warning that all activity on the road to Lake Chitaqua was recorded and sent to the National Guard. Several men with guns were on the inside of the fence...and the Impala, smashed to shit and rusted out._

_“Oh, Baby, no,” Dean whispered, slipping inside the fence and sneaking toward the car. He felt completely broken-up as he looked in the driver’s side door. “Oh no, Baby, what did they do to you?”_

_Dean turned at a sound just in time to see himself knocked out by his own self in an OG Army green jacket. Dean woke up handcuffed to a ladder in a cabin, face to face with his own face. The older, colder Dean was cleaning an automatic rifle._

_“What the hell?” Dean asked, eyes wide._

_“_ **_I_ ** _should be asking that question, don’t you think? In fact, why don’t you give me one good reason why I shouldn’t gank you right here and now?” the other Dean asked, pointing the rifle at his clone._

_“Because you’d only be hurting yourself,” Dean answered after a moment of thinking._

_“Very funny,” the other Dean said, shifting the rifle away._

_“Look, man--I’m no shapeshifter or demon or anything, okay?”_

_“Yeah, I know. I did the drill while you were out. Silver, salt, holy water...nothing. But you know what was funny? Was that you had every hidden lockpick, boxcutter, and switchblade that_ **_I_ ** _carry. Now, you want to explain that? Oh, and the, uh, resemblance...while you’re at it?”_

_Dean took a deep breath. “Zachariah,” he answered._

_The other Dean blinked a few times and stood. “Come again?”_

_“I’m you from the tail end of 2009. Zach plucked me from my bed and threw me five years into the future,” Dean explained._

_“Where is he? I wanna talk to him.”_

_“I don’t know.”_

_“Oh, you don’t know.”_

_“No, I don’t know. Look, I just wanna get back to my own fuckin’ year, okay?”_

_Other Dean ran his hand along his mouth and kneeled down in front of Dean. “Okay. If you’re me, then tell me something only I would know.”_

_“We’re in love with Y/n,” Dean said, automatically._

_A dark look passed through Other Dean’s eyes. “Everyone knows that. Try again.”_

_Dean thought a moment before smirking. “Rhonda Hurley. We were, uh, nineteen. She made us try on her panties. They were pink...and satiny...and you know what? We kinda liked it.”_

_Other Dean pursed his lips and stood. “Touché. So, what, Zach zapped you up here to see how bad it gets?”_

_“I guess. Croatoan virus, right? That’s their endgame?” Dean asked as Other Dean started prepping his guns and setting them in a duffel bag._

_“It’s efficient, it’s incurable, and it’s scary as hell. Turn people into monsters. Started hitting the major cities about two years ago. World really went in the crapper after that.”_

_“What about Sam?”_

_Other Dean went almost still, avoiding looking at himself for a moment before setting down a rifle and sighing. “Heavyweight showdown in Detroit. From what I understand, Sam didn’t make it.”_

_Confusion and fear went through Dean. “You weren’t with him?”_

_“No. No, me and Sam, we haven’t talked in--hell, five years.”_

_“We never tried to find him?” Dean asked, thinking about Y/n saying ‘being away from him is painful’. “And what about Y/n? They’re connected.”_

_Other Dean’s jaw twitched and he looked away. “We had other people to worry about.”_

_“Other than_ **_Y/n_ ** _? Was_ **_she_ ** _with him in Detroit? And where’s Dad?”_

_“Dead. Croats got ‘im about a year ago.” Other Dean picked up his rifle and shouldered his bag._

_“Where you goin’?” Dean demanded._

_“I gotta run an errand,” Other Dean responded._

_“Whoa, you’re just gonna leave me here?”_

_“_ **_Yes_ ** _. I got a camp full of twitchy trauma survivors out there with an Apocalypse hanging over their head. The last thing they need to see is a version of The Parent Trap. So, yeah, you stay locked down.”_

_“Okay. All right. Fine, but you don’t have to cuff me, man,” Dean pleaded. “Oh, come on. You don’t trust yourself?”_

_Other Dean turned at the door to give him an incredulous look. “No. Absolutely not,” he said before walking out of the cabin._

_“Dick,” Dean said, rolling his eyes._

_It didn’t escape Dean, as he worked to get a nail out of the floor to pick the cuff, that his future self didn’t answer the question about Y/n. He answered about John, but he didn’t answer about Y/n. Why did that seem so much more ominous? What happened to her?_

_Dean escaped the cuffs, leaving the cabin. He was stopped by Chuck and then accosted by a woman named Risa who was upset that Dean was in another woman’s cabin the night before. As he walked toward Cas’ cabin, Dean couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that he was sleeping around again. He was sleeping around because Y/n was gone. What happened to her?_

_He approached Cas’ cabin slowly, his eyebrows coming together at the beaded entryway and the sound of Cas speaking. “So in this way, we’re a fragment of total perception. Just, uh, one compartment in that dragonfly eye of group mind. Now, the key to this total, shared perception...it’s, um, it’s surprisingly physical.” Dean’s eyebrows shot up as he walked into the cabin to see Cas with a group of four women. “Oh. Excuse me, ladies. I think I need to confer with our fearless leader for a minute. Why not go get washed up for the orgy?”_

_The women smiled as they stood and headed out. “You’re all so beautiful.” Cas stood and stretched as Dean looked at him, confused._

_“What are you, a hippie?”_

_“I thought you’d gotten over trying to label me.”_

_“Cas, we gotta talk,” Dean started as Castiel turned to him._

_“Whoa. Strange.”_

_“What?”_

_“You...are not you. Not_ **_now_ ** _you, anyway.”_

_“No! Yeah. Yes, exactly.”_

_“What year are you from?” Cas asked._

_“2009.”_

_“Who did this to you? Is it Zachariah?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“Interesting.”_

_“Oh, yeah, it’s fuckin’ fascinating. Now. Why don’t you strap on your angel wings and fly me back to my page on the calendar?” Dean demanded._

_Castiel started chuckling and turned away. “I wish I could just, uh, strap on my wings, but I’m sorry...no dice.”_

_Dean appraised him a bit more carefully and shook his head. “What, are you stoned?”_

_“Uh, generally, yeah,” Cas responded, sobering a bit._

_“What happened to you?”_

_“Life,” Castiel responded._

_Dean swallowed thickly and looked around. “And what happened to Y/n? Where is she?”_

_Castiel looked away again. “When your father died, she didn’t have a chance.”_

_“Why wasn’t she here? Why was she with-”_

_“Two marks, Dean,” Cas pressed. “She only ever got two marks.”_

_Dean shook his head. He knew he was apprehensive about tethering Y/n to him for the rest of his life. He knew he was scared that he’d just end up being a_ **_third_ ** _disappointing alpha for her. But he didn’t think he’d keep from marking her for so long. He always assumed he’d do it...later._

_The sound of trucks coming into camp pulled Dean out of his head and he walked out of the cabin. Dean couldn’t stop his future self from shooting one of his men in the head, but he tried...and that just pissed himself off because everyone in camp was looking at two Deans._

_“Damn it,” Other Dean cursed. “I’m not gonna lie to you. Me and him.” He pointed at Dean. “It’s a pretty messed-up situation we got going. But believe me, when you need to know something, you will know it. Until then, we all have work to do.”_

_‘Work to do’ made Dean think back to Sam’s apartment after the fire._

_“What the hell was that?” Future Dean demanded after he pushed Dean into the cabin._

_“What the hell was_ **_that_ ** _? You just shot a guy in cold blood.”_

_“We were in an open quarantine zone. Got ambushed by some Croats on the way out,” Future Dean said, but Dean’s face told him that word meant nothing to him. “Croats. Croatoans. One of ‘em infected Yeager.”_

_“How do you know?”_

_“‘Cause after a few years of this, I know. I started seeing symptoms about a half an hour ago. Wasn’t gonna be long before he flipped. I didn’t see the point in troubling a good man with bad news.”_

_“‘Troubling a good man’? You just blew him away in front of your own people. Don’t you think that freaked them out a little bit?”_

_“It’s 2014. Plugging some Croat, it’s called commonplace. Trading words with my fuckin’ clone--_ **_that_ ** _might have freaked ‘em out a little.”_

_“All right, look-” Dean started, but his other self interrupted._

_“No,_ **_you_ ** _look. This isn’t your time. It’s_ **_mine_ ** _. You don’t make the decisions._ **_I_ ** _do. So, when I say stay in, you stay in.”_

_“All right, man. I’m sorry. Look, I-I’m not trying to mess you--me--_ **_us_ ** _up here,” Dean apologized._

_“I know,” Future Dean responded, sighing as he poured two glasses of whiskey._

_“It’s just been a really wacky weekend,” Dean said as his clone set the two glasses on the table with a thunk._

_“Tell me about it,” Other Dean said before they both took a drink._

_“What was the mission, anyway?” The future version smirked and unzipped the bag, pulling out a familiar revolver. “The Colt?”_

_“The Colt.”_

_“Where was it?” Dean asked as his mirror image examined the gun._

_“Everywhere. They’ve been moving it around. Took me five years, but...I finally got it. And tonight...tonight, I’m gonna kill the Devil.”_

_“Tonight? You’re goin’ after Lucifer tonight?”_

_“Yeah. Of course. Why wait another minute?” Other Dean asked, picking up his glass and taking a drink._

_The picture went out of focus and came back in with the Deans and Castiel and the woman who accosted Dean before were all in Dean’s cabin._

_“We don’t have to find Lucifer. We know where he is. The demon that we caught last week, he was one of the big guy’s entourage. He knew,” Future Dean said._

_“So, a demon tells you where Satan’s gonna be and you just believe it?” the woman snapped._

_“Oh trust me, he wasn’t lying,” Dean said, confidently._

_“And you know this how?”_

_“Our fearless leader, I’m afraid, is all too well-schooled in the art of getting to the truth,” Castiel responded._

_Dean’s eyes went wide and he stood, stepping forward. “Torture? Oh, so, we’re--we’re torturing again.” Future Dean looked across the table at his twin. “No, that’s--that’s good. Classy.”_

_Castiel laughed at him and Future Dean glared at him. “What? I like past you,” Cas defended._

_“Lucifer is here,” Future Dean said, pointing to a building on the map in front of them. “Now. I know the block and I know the building.”_

_“Oh, good--it’s_ **_right_ ** _in the middle of a hot zone,” Cas commented._

_“Crawling with Croats, yeah. You sayin’ my plan is reckless?” Other Dean snapped._

_“Are you saying we, uh, walk in straight up the driveway, past all the demons and the Croats, and we shoot the Devil?” the Angel asked._

_“Yes.”_

_“Okay, if you don’t like, uh, ‘reckless’, I could use ‘insouciant’ maybe.”_

_“Are you coming?” Dean demanded and Cas sighed._

_“Of course. But why is_ **_he_ ** _? I mean, he’s you five years ago. If something happens to him, you’re gone, right?”_

_“He’s coming,” Future Dean insisted._

_“Okay,” Cas said, standing. He obviously wasn’t going to argue with Dean. “Well, uh, I’ll get the grunts moving.”_

_“We’re loaded and on the road by midnight,” Future Dean commanded._

_“All righty,” Cas said as he and the woman left._

_“Why_ **_are_ ** _you taking me?” Dean asked._

_“Relax. You’ll be fine. Zach’s looking after you, right?”_

_“No, that’s not what I mean. I wanna know what’s going on.”_

_Future Dean stopped packing his duffel with weapons and started around the table. “Yeah, okay. You’re coming because I want you to see something. I want you to see our brother,” he said, staring directly in his eyes._

_Confusion filled Dean. “Sam? I thought he was dead.”_

_His future self swallowed, his jaw clenching and unclenching. “Sam didn’t_ **_die_ ** _in Detroit. He said ‘yes’.”_

_“Yes?” Dean asked, still confused for a moment, but it dawned on him. “Wait. You mean-”_

_“That’s right. The big ‘yes’...to the Devil. Lucifer’s wearing him to the prom.”_

_Dean couldn’t understand why Sam would ever give up like that. “Why would he do that?”_

_“Wish I knew. But now we don’t have a choice. It’s in him and it’s not gettin’ out. And we’ve got to kill him, Dean. And you need to see it...the whole damn thing, how bad it gets...so you can do it different.” Future Dean started working on packing his weapons again._

_“What do you mean?”_

_“Zach said he was gonna bring you back, right? To oh-nine?” Dean confirmed it with a bit of an attitude. “Well, when you get back home...you say ‘yes’. You hear me? Say ‘yes’ to Michael.”_

_“That’s crazy. If I let him in, then Michael fights the Devil. The battle’s gonna torch half the planet,” Dean argued._

_“Look around you, man._ **_Half_ ** _the planet’s better than_ **_no_ ** _planet, which is what we have now. If I could do it over again, I’d say ‘yes’ in a heartbeat.”_

_“So why don’t you?” Dean spat back._

_“I’ve tried!” Future Dean exclaimed. “I’ve shouted ‘yes’ ‘til I was blue in the face! I’ve been screamin’ since Lucifer took Y/n! The angels aren’t listening! They just...left...gave up! It’s too late for me, but for_ **_you_ ** _-”_

_“Oh no. There’s gotta be another way.”_

_“Yeah, that’s what I thought. I was cocky. Never actually thought I’d lose. But I was wrong. Dean...I was wrong. I’m begging you. Say ‘yes’.” Dean watched his own green eyes fill with sadness and despair as Future Dean fought his tears. “But you won’t. ‘Cause_ **_I_ ** _didn’t. Because that’s just not us, is it?”_

_Dean scoffed. “It’s not us? Wanna talk about_ **_that_ ** _shit? Why didn’t you mark Y/n? Why did you let Lucifer take her?” he demanded. “And what does that mean, huh? He_ **_took_ ** _her? What does that mean?!”_

_Future Dean shook his head and sneered as he looked down at the Colt on the table. “Marking her would have been the right choice...a decade ago. Before Sam got his teeth in her, before Dad got_ **_his_ ** _teeth in her, when she could’ve been ours. But we had to force her on Sam, didn’t we? Had to put her on a collision course with our brother. And_ **_because_ ** _she had Sammy’s mark on her neck, the first time she started to go into heat after Dad died, Lucifer showed up. She couldn’t even resist when he came for her.” He gave a sad shake of his head and closed his eyes. “Lucifer’s had her for more than a year. Can you imagine what that’s been like for her? She’s probably not even…”_

_“Is she still alive?” Dean asked, his voice cracking on the final word._

_Future Dean ran a hand over his chest and opened his eyes. “I can feel ‘er. She’s still alive...but she’s broken worse than Alastair broke ‘er.”_

_Dean bit his bottom lip and turned away. “Should’ve marked her,” he whispered._

_“Yeah. Should’ve marked her a thousand different times. Never did,” Future Dean said, walking out with the weapons bag._

_He rubbed his hand over his face and pressed his fingers into his eyes...and then he was waking up on the ground in a hot zone, gunfire going off inside of the building. Dean ran for the window then ran for the back, stopping short as he caught sight of Lucifer, in Sam, wearing all white and standing with his foot on Future Dean’s neck. A sickening crack had Future Dean’s neck breaking._

_Lucifer went stiff as he felt Dean’s presence. “Oh. Hello, Dean.” A crack of lightning made Dean flinch. “Aren’t you a surprise?” Another bolt of lightning and Lucifer appeared behind him. “You’ve come a long way to see this, haven’t you?”_

_Dean looked upon the Devil wearing his little brother and all hope ran out of his body. There was no fighting Satan. “Well, go ahead. Kill me.”_

_“Kill you?” Lucifer turned to look at the dead Dean. “Don’t you think that would be a little...redundant?” The Archangel sighed. “I’m sorry. It must be painful, speaking to me in this...shape. But it_ **_had_ ** _to be your brother. It had to be.” Lucifer moved to put a comforting hand on Dean’s shoulder but Dean flinched away. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Dean. What do you think I’m going to do?”_

_“I don’t know. Maybe steal my omega or...deep-fry the planet?”_

_“I didn’t steal her. She came with me willingly.” Lucifer smirked and snapped his fingers. Y/n was suddenly on her hands and knees beside him, completely nude except a collar connected to a leash in Lucifer’s left hand. “I helped her finally embrace her inner omega.”_

_“Y/n?” Dean croaked, but her eyes didn’t even raise to look at him. “Y/n, baby, look at me.”_

_Lucifer reached his hand out to pet her head, smiling. “She’s so much happier now that she’s been...broken down to her base.”_

_Tears welled up in Dean’s eyes as he watched Y/n’s head loll to follow Lucifer’s hand. She didn’t seem to even recognize that someone other than Lucifer was around. “You bastard,” Dean whispered._

_“As for the planet,” Lucifer started, offering her the leash and placing it in her mouth when she dropped her jaw. “Why would I want to destroy this stunning thing? Beautiful in a trillion different ways. The last perfect handiwork of God.” Dean didn’t respond, looking at Y/n with that leather between her teeth like a dog. “You ever hear the story of how I fell from grace?”_

_“Oh, good God, you’re not gonna tell me a bedtime story, are you? My stomach’s almost out of bile,” Dean snapped._

_“You know why God cast me down? Because I loved him. More than anything. And then God created…you. The little...hairless apes. And then he asked all of us to bow down before_ **_you_ ** _, to love_ **_you_ ** _more than_ **_him_ ** _. And I said, ‘Father, I can’t’. I said, ‘These human beings are flawed, murderous.’ And for that, God had Michael cast me into Hell. Now, tell me, does the punishment fit the crime? Especially when I was right? Look at what six billion of you have done to this thing and how many of you blame_ **_me_ ** _for it.”_

_“You’re not fooling me, you know that? With this Sympathy For the Devil Crap. I know what you are,” Dean snapped, looking from Lucifer to Y/n and back._

_“What am I?” Lucifer asked._

_“You’re the same thing, only bigger. The same brand of cockroach I’ve been squashing my whole life. An ugly, evil, belly-to-the-ground, supernatural piece of crap. The only difference between them and you is the size of your ego.”_

_Dean shook a little as Lucifer slowly broke into a smile. “I like you, Dean. I get what the other Angels see in you. Goodbye. We’ll meet again soon.” Lucifer turned to walk away, grabbing Y/n’s leash from her mouth._

_“You better kill me now!” Dean shouted, prompting Lucifer to turn back to him._

_“You better kill me now. Or I swear, I will find a way to kill you. And I won’t stop.”_

_“I know you won’t. I know you won’t say ‘yes’ to Michael, either. And I know you won’t kill Sam. Whatever you do, you will always end up here. Whatever choices you make, whatever details you alter,_ **_we_ ** _will always end up...here.” Tears escaped Dean’s eyes at the Devil’s words. “I win. So, I win.”_

_“You’re wrong,” Dean denied, his voice breaking._

_“See you in five years, Dean,” Lucifer said, a crash of thunder and lightning and Lucifer and Y/n both disappeared._

_Dean turned, upset and near breaking when confronted with what he just saw, only to be confronted with Zachariah poking him in the forehead with two fingers._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You woke from your dream to see Dean and Zachariah standing near the kitchenette sink in the hotel room. Dean looked overwhelmed and pissed, but when his eyes moved to you, there was relief. He refocused on the Angel as you stood from the bed. “Oh, well, if it isn’t the ghost of Christmas Screw You.”

“Enough. Dean, enough. You saw it, right? You saw what happens. You’re the only person who can prove the Devil wrong. Just say ‘yes’,” Zachariah demanded.

“How do I know that this whole thing isn’t one of your tricks? Huh? Some Angel hocus pocus?”

“Like the shit in Cincinnati,” you added, moving to Dean’s side.

“The time for tricks is over, Dean. Give yourself to Michael. Say ‘yes’ and we can strike. Before Lucifer gets to Sam. Before billions die.”

Dean stepped away from the Angel, his hand on your wrist pulling you with him. You could smell fear and guilt and sadness in his scent, but he ran his thumb across your skin in a comforting motion as he screwed his face up with determination and said, “Nah.”

“‘Nah’?” Zachariah asked as Dean turned back to him. “You telling me you haven’t learned your lesson?”

“Oh, I’ve learned a lesson, all right. Just not the one you wanted to teach,” Dean ground out through gritted teeth.

“Well, I’ll just have to teach it again!” the Angel exclaimed, stepping forward intimidatingly. “Because I got you now, boy, and I’m never letting you-”

You and Dean were suddenly on the side of a back road with Castiel. “That’s pretty nice timing, Cas,” Dean praised.

“We had an appointment,” Castiel responded, with just a slight smile.

Dean put a hand on the Angel’s shoulder. “Don’t ever change.”

“How did Zachariah find you?” Cas asked as Dean started patting his jeans.

“Long story,” he said as he pulled out his phone. “Let’s just stay away from Jehovah’s Witnesses from now on, okay?”

“What are you doing?” Cas asked.

“Something I should have done in the first place,” Dean answered, putting his phone to his ear.

“He’s calling Sam,” you answered, turning away. Your brain was a bit confused with his future memories bleeding through.

Castiel said your name gently and you looked up at him. “Are you all right?”

“I’m not sure. I think I just dreamed what happened to Dean in the future as it was happening to him. Is that a thing?” you asked, quietly.

“Of course.” Cas nodded. “Yes, that is a thing. You are connected. You are closer than you have been. Your connection will get stronger.”

You nodded, running through the things you remembered as Dean quietly spoke to Sam. You could hear him say, “Changed my mind,” but your brain was in the memories. Dean said he loved you. The Dean from the future said it was common knowledge. Future Dean started to try to say ‘yes’ to Michael the moment he lost you. So, he did love you...but he didn’t want to mark you. What kind of messed-up bullshit was that?

Dean flipped his phone closed and turned back to Cas. “Can you bamph us back to my car?”

Cas dropped you and Dean off at the Impala and you immediately started driving out of Kansas City. Dean kept looking over at you as he drove. You could tell he wanted to talk about it. “Don’t worry. There’s no leash or collar,” you said, pulling your neckline down to show him.

“How do you know about that?” he asked in an awed whisper.

“Dreamed it,” you answered with a shrug. “There’s gaps. I know I missed stuff, but...I caught the big stuff, I think.”

“You caught the ending, I take it?” You nodded. “So, you get why I called Sam, right?”

You nodded. “I wanted you to give him a shot when he called last night, Dean.”

“Right.” He licked his lips and sucked air through his teeth. “So...I was thinking...maybe...it’s time.”

“Time?” you asked, eyebrow raising.

“I mean, I know we haven’t been together that long this time but you said you’ve been in love with me for-”

“No,” you said, suddenly. You couldn’t believe the word came out of your mouth and based upon the look on his face, Dean couldn’t believe it either.

“No?”

“No, you aren’t going to mark me right now, Dean.”

It was like a punch to the gut. Everything you ever wanted on a platter and you had to deny it. Alanis would call that ‘Ironic’...but you just called it heartbreaking.

“I know it’s early but-”

“It has nothing to do with that.” You looked away out the window beside you. “You’re not going to mark me just because you’re afraid of that future, because you’re afraid of Lucifer taking me and turning me into his little omega garden pet. Just yesterday, you were against it. I brought it up and you said we’d deal with it later. You said ‘later’ because you didn’t want to mark me. Dean, you don’t _want_ to mark me. You never have and-”

“That’s not true, Y/n,” he argued. “I’ve _wanted_ to make you-”

“ _Don’t lie!_ ” you hissed, not looking at him. “That future isn’t going to happen. So you don’t need to be doing something you don’t want to do...and you don’t want to mark me. If you wanted to mark me, you had a thousand chances and you proved you don’t want to mark me every time. So, no. I don’t consent to you marking me.”

You managed to get the words out of your mouth strong, but then you clammed up. Not another word passed your lips. You kept expecting tears to fall, but none did. You proudly stood strong as he drove you to meet Sam.

You both got out of the Impala and leaned against the side as you waited for Sam to show up. You could feel the odd mix of pain and confusion and hope pouring off of Dean, but it was nothing compared to your own disappointed elation. You hoped he understood that despite the fact that you wanted nothing more than to bear his mark, you just couldn’t let him do something he’d regret. You had enough regretful connections.

An old beat-up Continental drove down the road and Sam got out once it was parked and approached. “Sam,” Dean greeted. Sam’s stance and scent screamed apprehension, especially as Dean pulled the demon-killing knife out of the back of his jeans and held it out to Sam. “If you’re serious and you want back in...you should hang on to this. I’m sure you’re rusty.”

Sam gingerly took the knife, unable to look Dean in his eyes.

“Look, man,” Dean started. “I’m sorry. I don’t know. I’m...whatever I need to be. But I was, uh...wrong.”

“What made you change your mind?” Sam asked and you looked at your feet.

“Long story. The point is...maybe we are each others’ Achilles heel. Maybe they’ll find a way to use us against each other, I don’t know. I just know that we’re all we’ve got. More than that...we keep each other human.”

“Thank you. Really. Thank you. I won’t let you down,” Sam promised.

“Oh, I know it. I mean, you _are_ the second-best hunter on the planet,” Dean responded.

“Fourth,” you corrected with a smirk. “You dropped below me and John when you went on hiatus.”

Sam scoffed and nodded, smiling slightly. “So what do we do now?”

“We make our own future,” Dean answered.

“Guess we have no choice,” Sam said.

“We always have a choice,” you said, pulling open the back door of the Impala so that Sam could take his place in the front with Dean.


End file.
